Pop Goes The Shoulder
by Dracuncula
Summary: Based on a long ago S2E1 Maura quote: "She had a dislocated shoulder and still tackled a two-hundred pound suspect to the ground."


**Based on a long ago S2E1 Maura quote: "She had a dislocated shoulder and still tackled a two-hundred pound suspect to the ground." This is my take on what that might have looked like. ****None of the R&I characters belong to me.**

* * *

Cornering a suspect with her partner out cold, no backup on the way and her gun lost somewhere in the gutter during a scuffle with said suspect earlier along in this chase was not one of Jane Rizzoli's brightest moments, even she would admit.

The young man stood backed up against a brick wall, and before Jane could even attempt to get control of the situation the perp lunged for her. He managed to grab Jane by her forearm and before the detective could react, he used her arm for leverage to smash her front first into the brick wall she had cornered him in front of. She could feel her outstretched arm being awkwardly twisted behind her back as he didn't let go of her, followed only seconds later by a sickening popping sound and a searing pain in her right shoulder. Jane couldn't help the sound of agony escaping her throat. The pain was blinding, incapacitating if she was being completely honest with herself, but she chose to ignore it, knowing that if she didn't act the perp would be gone and with him her case.

Assuming the impact along with the dislocated shoulder had disabled the detective sufficiently, the suspect let go of her to search for the quickest way to make an escape. As soon as Jane felt his hands falling off of her she spun around, swinging her left arm as she went, aiming for the man's throat with the edge of her hand. The unexpected impact had him stumbling backwards, gasping for air as he recovered from the punch. Jane used this opportunity to fling herself at the suspect, tackling him to the ground with full force. Jane came to land on top of the man painfully, her right shoulder burning with renewed pain that nearly made her black out but somehow she managed to fumble for the handcuffs dangling from her belt and before the man knew what hit him she had slapped the cuffs on him. Fortunately, Frost chose that particular moment to stumble towards Jane and the incapacitated suspect, gun in one hand and his other pressed to a gash on his forehead to try, rather unsuccessfully, to staunch the bleed.

"You alright Jane? Backup's on the way." Frost informed his partner before delivering a kick for good measure into the perp's gut. "Get up you dirtbag and don't you even think about making a run for it!" he yelled at the man, clearly in a foul mood for being knocked out earlier.

Jane didn't even attempt to get back on her feet again, rolling herself off of the suspect, sitting on the ground concentrating on not screaming out loud with the pain she found herself in.

It took mere minutes for backup to arrive and cart off the suspect in the back of a patrol car, but to Jane it seemed like hours she spent doubled over on the cold hard ground in agony. As soon as the suspect had been taken away, Frost came to stand next to Jane, a white handkerchief now pressed to his forehead.

"Shit Jane! What happened to your arm? Want me to radio for an ambulance?" he asked as he took in the dishevelled look of his partner and the odd angle of her shoulder.

"No! S'fine." Jane ground out between clenched teeth. "Back to headquarters. Maura."

Barry knew the instant Jane said her best friend's name that his partner was in for a shitstorm if she walked into the M.E.'s morgue like this but his head was already hurting bad enough and he wasn't going to make matters worse by trying to argue with Jane. For whatever reason she seemed to think that Doctor Isles was perfectly suited to not only act as their Chief Medical Examiner, but also as Jane's personal physician whenever she got back from a pickup that ended with scrapes and bruises, and sometimes worse. Without any further comment Frost helped Jane up from the ground and wasted no time getting her back to their car.

By the time they got back to BPD headquarters, Jane's skin had taken on a sickly pallor and cold sweat was forming on her brow. Without even stopping to ask, Frost grabbed her good arm and pulled her out of the car, half carrying her to the elevator and directly down to the morgue. He knew that Jane would have been better off in a hospital but he also knew that the only one who could make her go and, more importantly, stay there was Maura.

"Doctor Isles?" he called out the second he and Jane entered the morgue, bursting through the M.E.'s office doors.

"Oh!" Maura looked up from her paper work, startled by the sudden intrusion and frowned upon seeing Barry Frost, his forehead sporting a nasty gash that had been bleeding quite profusely by the looks of it. "What happened to your …" but before Maura could even finish her sentence she took in Jane, leaning heavily onto Frost, her pallid face and sweaty brow, shaking from what looked to be immense pain. "Jane!" she exclaimed, jumping out of her chair and at her friend's side in an instant, helping Frost to lower her onto her sofa. "What happened?"

"I'm not really sure. I was out cold for most of it. We were going after our suspect and Jane must have cornered him. When I caught up with them he was tackled to the ground and cuffed, and Jane's arm was like this …" Frost answered, gesturing to Jane's right arm hanging limply to her side.

"Most likely an anterior displacement of the humeral head." Maura murmured as she took in the odd angle Jane's right arm was in. "An extremely painful dislocation of the shoulder joint. You should have taken her to the hospital right away!"

"That's what I told her, but she insisted I take her to you instead." Frost shrugged.

"You can fix it, Maura." Jane said in a quiet voice, her eyes searching for her friend's with a pleading expression.

"Don't be ridiculous, Jane! This procedure requires heavy sedation, it is immensely painful!" Maura scolded. "We're calling an ambulance. The paramedics will be able to give you something for the pain and get you to the hospital. Barry, would you please request an ambulance and see the paramedics to my office once they arrive?"

Frost nodded and gladly excused himself from the office, sensing that the M.E. was becoming quite upset with his partner, not wanting to get in the middle of Maura having a go at Jane. The M.E. was no one to mess with; that much was a well-known fact around the BPD. However, one Detective Rizzoli still tried to coax Maura into getting it over and done with herself.

"Can't you just pop it back in? Please! You did it with my nose before, why is this any different?" Jane's tone of voice became increasingly whiny. She really did not want to have to go to the hospital, much less be put under.

"No Jane, I can't just 'pop it back in'!" Maura was clearly starting to get cross with Jane's behaviour. "And I will not be discussing this with you now. I cannot believe you made Barry drive you here instead of going to the hospital!"

Maura should be used to her friend's reckless behaviour by now, after all this wasn't the first time she had shown up in Maura's office looking battered and bruised, demanding she patch her back up. But it still always made the doctor's gut clench with worry to see Jane like this. She hated that Jane getting hurt on the job was an all too real possibility.

Jane, unaware of Maura's worries, knew there was no point in arguing with the M.E., certainly not with the pain she was in. She closed her eyes and took a deep steadying breath, hoping the pain wouldn't make her pass out in front of Maura or she'd never hear the end of it. Suddenly she felt a delicate hand slip into hers. She cracked her eyes open and saw Maura sitting next to her. She attempted a smile and squeezed Maura's hand, glad she had something to hold on to.

"Hey doc, the paramedics are here!" Frost's voice directed the women's attention away from each other and to the door of Maura's office, where Frost entered with two paramedics trailing behind him.

Maura got up off her sofa, explaining to the paramedics what had happened, stepping back to make room for them to work. Too concentrated on what the paramedics were doing, she missed the crestfallen expression on Jane's face when she let go of her hand.

"Alright, we'll give you some midazolam, it will have kicked in by the time we get to the hospital and they'll be getting your arm fixed in no time." the paramedic explained to Jane once he'd had a good look at her. He made quick work of injecting the drug into Jane's arm. "Now let's get you back to the ambulance."

Maura was quick to grab Jane's good arm and help her up, steadying her friend on the short walk out to the ambulance. As soon as Jane was settled in the back of the vehicle, Maura climbed in to sit beside her.

"You comin'?" Jane asked, looking at Maura and couldn't help but feel relieved because, much as she hated to admit it, hospitals scared the shit out of her.

"Of course I'm coming. Someone will have to keep an eye on you or as soon as the drug wears off you'll be signing yourself out of the hospital again!" Maura admonished her friend, but squeezed her hand to reassure her that she wasn't being all too serious.

The ride to the hospital was short and by the time they got there, Jane had a rather pleased, if slightly dazed smile on her face and wouldn't let go of Maura's hand, even as the paramedics wheeled her out of the car and into the ER.

"I think the stuff they gave me kicked in." Jane announced as soon as she was settled in one of the examination cubicles after having some x-rays taken of her shoulder, still clutching Maura's hand. "Are you angry with me Maura?"

Maura sighed, looking at Jane for a few seconds before answering. "I'm not angry with you Jane."

"Good! I don't like it when you get angry with me. You're scary when you're angry." Jane stated, a slight slur in her voice.

"Detective Rizzoli?" a voice interrupted before Maura could respond, and the doctor entered the cubicle.

Jane put on a pleasant smile (a sign that she was now well and truly drugged, Maura thought) and greeted the doctor. "Hey, doc. Sorry to be troubling you with this. My friend here refused to pop my shoulder back in for me, you see." she explained and tried to glare at Maura, not quite succeeding.

"Is that so?" the doctor asked and turned towards Maura, his eyes widening slightly in recognition. "You're Doctor Isles, the Chief Medical Examiner." he stated.

"I am", Maura answered, taking in the doctor standing in front of her, desperately trying to remember where she might know him from. "I am sorry, but have we met before?"

"No, we haven't. But I saw your picture in the papers the other day, for that charity event you did." he explained, a pleasant twinkle in his eyes.

"Ah, yes. That." Maura said curtly, turning her attention back to Jane, hoping the doctor would get the hint and start treating his patient, rather than trying to make small talk with her. Devoid of Maura's attention, the doctor focused on Jane once more.

"Now then! Detective Rizzoli, we'll need to get your shoulder repositioned. We can either give you some more analgesics and do it like this, or we'll have to call the anaesthesiologist in."

"No anaesthess … No anaestisss … " Jane attempted, but kept stumbling over the word.

"Alright, understood, no anaesthesia." the doctor reassured her. "In that case I'll dose you with some ketamine and then we'll get to work!"

After the second round of pain medication, Jane could care less about what happened to the world around her, as long as Maura was there to hold her hand. Jane had insisted that Maura stay during the procedure and while the doctor made Jane sit down and started pulling and twisting her right arm, her transfixed stare was directed at her and Maura's joined hands.

Before long, the doctor had Jane's shoulder repositioned and the release forms signed, committing Jane back into Maura's care.

* * *

"Mauraaaa …" Jane whined, twisting around trying to shrug on her shirt, but only managing to wind the resisting fabric tighter around her torso and the bulk that was her arm in a sling. Maura entered Jane's bedroom, finding her friend who had managed to successfully restrain herself inside her shirt. She couldn't help but chuckle at the sight, earning a frown from Jane.

"I did tell you it was a bad idea to try and get changed on your own." Maura said, rescuing her friend from the offending item of clothing.

"How hard can it be to get dressed with one arm …" Jane insisted like a petulant child, even though it was obvious that 'getting dressed using only one arm' was not on the list of things Jane Rizzoli could do.

"Now come on, I've ordered us some pizza. You should be able to manage that just fine with one hand. And the sedatives should have worn off enough by now for you to keep some food down!" Maura said, giving Jane a pointed look, silently reminding her of the fuss Jane had kicked up about wanting to have a hotdog once Maura had gotten her back to her apartment, not caring that Maura insisted food might not be such a good idea as long as Jane was still heavily medicated. The detective would have none of it and after Maura had reluctantly gotten a hotdog for the adamant detective, Jane had managed to keep it down for about fifteen minutes tops, before she was doubled over on the bathroom floor, retching into the toilet with Maura holding back her hair and patting her back, quietly murmuring "I told you so …"

After finishing dinner, the exhaustion of the day finally caught up with Jane and while Maura did the dishes, she nodded off on the sofa. Minutes later she was woken by the lightest of touches on her cheek. She opened her eyes to find Maura kneeling next to her, the back of her hand stroking lightly back and forth over her cheek.

"Hey sleepyhead", Maura whispered and smiled at Jane. "Let's get you to bed."

Jane nodded, accepting her friend's helping hand without protest and let herself be led into the bedroom. As soon as Maura had Jane settled in bed, propped up on her good side, she slid underneath the covers behind her friend. Without hesitating, Jane's hand reached out behind her, finding Maura's in the dark and pulling it to rest around her waist, effectively pulling Maura into a spooning position. Jane sighed contently and leaned back into Maura's warm body. Being cuddled by Maura like this, Jane thought before drifting off to sleep, was worth every last second of pain her injured shoulder had put her through.


End file.
